Winter
by KamikazeCreamPuff
Summary: Hatter spends his first Thanksgiving with the Hamiltons, and he and Alice start the holiday season off with a bang. Alice/Hatter, fluff and hilarity.


**A/N:** There's so much holiday fluff here, you might choke on it. You have been warned. ^_^;;

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..

Hatter was just sitting on the couch one day, mildly reading the day's paper, when Alice blew in through his door and said, "My Mom's invited you to Thanksgiving."

Now, her sudden appearance wasn't what surprised him – ever since she'd gotten a key to his flat she'd developed a tendency for dropping whenever she liked. After, of course, a rather amusing (at least for Hatter) period where she insisted on knocking first, for some reason—like he would ever turn her away. No, what surprised him was what she'd said.

"Thanksgiving?" he asked, shifting over on the couch so she could plop down next to him, her legs swinging to stretch across his lap. "That's another Oyster thing?"

She hummed in agreement. "It's an American holiday. My Mom was thinking you might not have ever had one, considering, you know, how you're from England."

They smiled at each other. Alice was alluding to the little white lie they'd fed her mother, which had since grown into an immense inside joke between them. His accent? English. Couldn't drive? English. Never seen a TV before? _English._

"Right," Hatter said, pulling his face together in mock severity. "No Thanksgivings in England. Very sheltered over there, I was. So explain it to me."

Alice shrugged. "Not much to tell. It's a holiday where families all gather and have an enormous dinner together. It's never been a huge occasion for me and Mom because, you know… there was only us. No extended family to come visit. But we have fun, you know, we watch the Thanksgiving parade on the TV and go ice skating. The Regent Square nearby, you know the one – well, they open it as an ice rink for the winter season every year. That's when I really feel like it's the Christmas season," she said with a smile, "Skating on Thanksgiving."

"Sounds like fun," Hatter commented. "Count me in. What do I have to do?"

* * *

..

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Hatter said, looking down forlornly at the turkey he was meant to be stuffing. Its empty chest cavity lay gaping open before him, looking only just big enough for his hand to fit inside and still painfully recognizable as a once-living animal, now lying dead and naked on the table. Hatter didn't count himself as a squeamish person—far from it. But this was, you know… _revolting._ "Alice, there's no way. My hand is totally going to get stuck right up this turkey's—"

"Don't be ridiculous," she reprimanded. "That turkey's a ten-pounder, it's plenty big enough."

"Can't I just mash potatoes instead? How come you got the not-sticking-your-hand-in-a-chest-cavity job?"

"Hatter, you've got bigger handfuls than either me or Mom, so it'll be over before you've even started. Promise. And you'll be glad you did when the turkey comes out again – the stuffing's the best part, everybody knows it."

Hatter sighed.

* * *

..

Dinner turned out fine (and Alice was right – the stuffing _was_ the best part, even if it _had_ come out of a chest cavity), and after pie and a bottle of wine, Alice brought up the subject of ice skating. Her mother tried to beg out, claiming that she was getting too old to keep falling on her butt like that, but Alice looked so forlorn at the prospect of going without her that she was eventually coerced into coming along.

They poured three thermoses of hot drinks (cocoa for the girls, tea for Hatter), bundled up, and headed out to the rink. Carol insisted that she was fine just watching and taking pictures, leaving Hatter and Alice to strap on their chunky, nauseatingly purple rental skates.

Dusk had just settled in over the open-air rink as Hatter took his first shaky steps onto the ice. He caught on to the concept rather quickly – a sort of pushing-off motion with his feet—but pretended to need help for a bit longer simply because he loved Alice's hands on his so much. She dragged him along, expertly skating backwards with the confidence of an old pro.

After awhile, they were able to whiz around the rink together with just the single pair of held hands between them, leaving the slower traffic of skaters to cling to the rails. As they brushed by, they'd point out to each other awkward, blushing teenagers on their dates, girls in flowy-skirted leotards spinning expert pirouettes, or adorable children so bundled up by their parents that they practically _bounced_ on the ice. Hatter's cheeks hurt from so much grinning, and the Christmas lights decorating the square shone bright against the blue-black sky, and _Alice._

Her black hair was blown every which way, the ends getting all tangled in each other. Her nose was red from the cold, her cheeks flush, her blue eyes bright and practically _glittering_, so vibrant was her smile.

Hatter slowed to a shaky stop. Alice skidded to a stop alongside him with a quizzical look, obviously wondering why they'd stopped and breathing a bit hard from the exertion of skating for so long without pause. "Hatter?" she asked.

He just wanted to hold her, just for a second. "You are amazing," he said with a satisfied smile, pulling her a bit closer so he could rest his forehead on hers, his hands on her waist.

She matched his smile with one of her own, happy and whole, and inched her nose up against his so she could pull him into a kiss. Hatter could feel the cold of the air on his cheeks, contrasting pleasantly with all the heat that was bubbling up inside, and he thought how a year ago he never would have believed it was possible to feel this happy. Already he knew that it was an impossible feeling to bottle up, and he couldn't believe that the King and Queen had tried.

He was dizzy with all the skating and spinning and the kissing, which was his excuse for why he suddenly lost his balance on the ice and interrupted the kiss by spilling face-first onto the rink.

Alice gaped at him for a little bit before bursting into laughter. Hatter groaned and pulled himself into a sitting position. "Shut up," he whined. He could taste blood in his mouth. "Jeezus, I think I bit my lip!"

Alice wasn't listening, she was so busy howling with laughter, clutching her stomach and bent over double with effort. Hatter glared at her with a sour expression and, strategically placed where he was, swiped a hand against the back of her right leg so that she tumbled down onto the ice next to him, landing on her butt with an undignified squawk. She glared at him as he laughed, and pretended to shove him.

"Jerk," she said, but he knew she didn't mean it.

"Yeah," he said, hooking a finger through her belt loop and dragging her closer – she slid quite easily over the ice. He ducked his head so his nose brushed up against hers and he wiggled his eyebrows mischievously. "I know."

And they kissed and they giggled and shoved, playing like children surrounded by a world of lights and wintertime, not even caring as their butts grew increasingly colder sitting there on the ice.

* * *

..


End file.
